“She will,” I say. I want to take her hand and squeeze it. Instead, I just stare and hope she can sense the sadness in me.
She gives me a smile that doesn’t seem real. “I know.”
“All right, let’s move,” Saxon calls out from the front of the group. He leads us to the waterfall, down a slope of massive slippery rocks. We climb down, one at a time, and when we hit the bottom, we’re so close to the falls that I can feel the freezing water spraying on my face.
It’s hell.
“I miss the beach,” I hear Sketch groan over the roar of the water.
I never thought I’d say it. But I do, too.
“Dad won’t believe his eyes when he sees you, Meadow,” Koi says, looking at the sky. It’s light pink, the color of raw fish. “No telling what he’ll say when he sees Patient Zero with you.”
He gives me that same ridiculous glare he always has. He hates me, still thinks of me as the guy who tried to kill his sister. His mother’s creation. But I don’t give a damn. I’m learning it’s easier not to care what people think of me.
The waterfall is built into the side of a cliff. “Swim down, under the falls, up the other side. There’s a cave back there. Hidden. Good place for the Yellows to hide.”
“You mean we’re going in that godforsaken pool?” Sketch squawks like a gull.
Saxon laughs. “Unless you’d rather stay out here and face whatever Colors come this way alone . . . not to mention the Needles. They’ll be dropping soon.”
Sketch glares.
“I’ll go first,” Meadow says.
I want to tell her to be careful. That if something happens to her, if she switches while she’s under the water and isn’t strong enough to fight to the surface, I don’t know what I’ll do with myself.
But it’s like having Koi again has replaced a tiny fragment of her old self. She’s fearless as she stomps forward, takes a deep breath, and dives into the water.
CHAPTER 85
MEADOW
My father taught me how to swim almost as soon as I could walk.
The water is like home to me.
A peaceful, safe place, away from the world, away from the threat of murder.
But this water is not the same. I dive, and it feels like knives are stabbing me. Every inch of my skin, seeping into my pores. Strangling me. With my eyes open, I can see my skin reacting. Reddening, to whatever the Initiative has laced this water with.
But I think of my father.
He is on the other side of the falls.
And I would go through hell and back to get to him.
I swim down, my head feeling like it might explode from the pressure.
My father tied weights to my legs. He made me swim with my arms.
My father blindfolded me. He made me find my way to shore, and had faith that I wouldn’t drown.
My body is ice. It is almost impossible to haul myself up and out, and the pain is enough to make me gasp when my cheek hits dry land.
Sketch comes up behind me, pulls her body into the cave.
“Son of a Leech-loving ChumHead!” she screams, and I laugh through the pain, as the others emerge behind her.
We are inside of a small cave, surrounded on all sides by grimy, rocky walls that make a dome over our heads. It smells like earth. The falls barrel down behind me, covering the entrance, glittering blue with the light of day.
It is strange, how the beauty of this world begs to be seen. Even in the darkest, most dangerous places, it shines through.
Saxon points at a pile of blankets, folded neatly in the corner of the cave. “Frostbite is nasty business,” he says. “Get warm, and let’s move.”
Zephyr wraps a blanket around me before he wraps himself. He is selfless and loving.
And yet when he looks at me, I see a darkness in his eyes that reminds me too much of my own.
“Zephyr,” I say. “Look, if you want to talk about everything some more—”
“I’m fine,” he cuts me off. Then he sighs, runs a hand over the back of his neck. “I just need some time, Meadow.”
He turns and heads away, following the others down an earthen tunnel.
I follow his shadow into the darkness.
My father is on the other side of it.
And that thought, the image of his face, and the pride in his eyes when he sees me, warms me more than the blanket ever could.
CHAPTER 86
ZEPHYR
The tunnel leads us upward for too long.
There’s no way this could have been made by the earth. The walls are perfectly round and polished.
“The Ridge used to be a big mining place before the Fall,” Koi says. I can’t see him, but his voice echoes back, bounding through the darkness. “Abram, one of the oldest guys we’ve got, used to live here. He refused to move when they built the Ridge, so they built it up right around him. He knows everything there is to know about this place.”
I feel my way along, moving forward.
“My thighs are burning,” Sketch groans.
She never shuts up. She’s Talan, but she’s a whole hell of a lot worse. And it hurts, thinking of Talan.
Would Talan have come with me, to the Ridge?
I know the answer already. To everyone else, Talan seemed selfish, and broken, but I knew the truth. She was loyal as hell. She would’ve followed me to the ends of the earth. She did follow me, all the way into the Headquarters building.
Right into death. I wonder if the tables were turned, would Meadow follow me?
Would she risk everything, even her freedom?
Stop whining. I can hear Talan’s gravelly voice in my memories, coming back. Just shut up, Zeph, be a man, and get over it. You chose this. You went after her.
I shake Talan’s voice away.
Finally, just when my back muscles are screaming, the tunnel widens.
There’s a door, handmade, standing right there in the wall. Two torches hang beside it, throwing light around the small space. Koi knocks three times, followed by two quick staccato beats. I hear a loud bang, then a muffled curse. The door swings open. A pool of orange light shines out.
A dark face stares at us, a tall wavy-haired man with what looks like a permanent question in his eyes. They’re a strange, milky white.
“Who’s knocking this early? Not even light yet, is it?” He’s looking a little to the right of us. “I can hear your breathing, there’s three of you there!”
Saxon chuckles and snaps his fingers, and the man whips his head toward the sound.
“Who goes there? I’ll take you down, I will! Got hands big as an elephant, they tell me!” He lifts his hands and swings them toward us. They’re way bigger than they should be. Swollen like they’re full of air.
“Keep those filthy hands away from my face, Abram,” Koi says.
The man’s face lights up with a toothless grin. “Oy! It’s Koi! He’s got stragglers!” His voice squeaks like a mouse. He yells back into the doorway behind him. “Koi and Sax are back, with more Yellows!”
Meadow shoves past me, almost knocking the old man over.
“Where is he? Where’s my father?”
“Meadow, hold on,” Koi says. He rushes in after her, and then we’re all moving forward, spilling through the doorway past Abram.